


When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in China...

by stellarparallax



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Prompt Fill, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 08:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11528226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarparallax/pseuds/stellarparallax
Summary: Perhaps Yakov treated Victor and Yuuri unfairly the night before the Cup of China. Perhaps he should have been more understanding towards Victor.Perhaps he should learn when not to invite himself to dinner with them.





	When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in China...

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my contribution for the [Catfish Prompt Party](https://catfishpromptparty.tumblr.com/) for the prompt "A Victuuri date where Yakov accidentally crashes as a third wheel." I really hope the person who sent the prompt in likes this. 
> 
> It's slightly suggestive but I promise that there isn't any explicit "on-screen" sex. If you feel that you won't be comfortable with that, please do not read this **especially if you're a minor**. 
> 
> This was really fun to write for. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!

Yakov considered his eye for talent to be impeccable. After all, he was the one who had offered to coach Victor Nikiforov, Yuri Plisetsky and Mila Babicheva after he saw how badly their talent was being wasted by their former coaches. Since then, they have only exceeded his expectations at every turn. Well, at least on the ice. Yakov stopped being surprised at Victor’s penchant for never listening to whatever he said. While he was angry that Victor flew off to Japan to woo Yuuri Katsuki under the pretense of being his coach, he wasn’t even the slightest bit surprised by it.

He knew that Yuuri was no dime-a-dozen figure skater, and he definitely was the best that Japan had. Rationally, he knew that Yuuri was good for Victor. However, having been a stand-in for Victor’s absent parents, he couldn’t help but regard him with a little bit of suspicion. Over the years, there have been many people who have tried to take advantage of Victor and Yakov, by default, was given the gruelling job of having to swat them away. But when he watched him silently wrap himself up in his own worries in the hallway at the Cup of China, he knew that Yuuri was the real deal.

Anyone vaguely familiar with dealing with athletes knew that most athletes faced at least a base amount of anxiety due to the pressure of competing and doing well. It was also well known that Yuuri dealt with some form of generalised anxiety. That being said, what he saw in Yuuri was different from regular competition anxiety or even his own generalised anxiety, which he would never admit that he noticed through watching as many videos of Yuuri floating around the internet as his free time would afford him after Victor told him that he was taking a break from skating. In that moment, he saw in him a corrupted form of fear, actively trying to pretend to be something else. He had never seen that in any of Yuuri’s public appearances. The only difference in the equation was that those public appearances were before Victor decided to coach him.

So when he watched Yuuri attempt Victor’s signature move at the end of his Free Programme, he realised that he had to make up for his flippant behaviour when Victor had invited him for dinner two nights before.

“Victor, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?” he yelled across the locker room when he saw Victor and Yuuri attempting to sneak out to avoid the press.

“Huh? Uhh.. We were just… Dinner…,” Victor stammered as he frantically tried to press down his hair that was uncharacteristically messy.

“What are we having?” Yakov asked pointedly.

“... What?” Yuuri’s voice squeaked.

Yakov looked over at Yuuri who was still fumbling with the buttons on his crumpled shirt.

“Oh, ah, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Of course you’d want to go home, collapse onto a couch and order room service. Look at you, Vitya. You’re so tired that you can’t be bothered to fix your hair.

“Ha.. ha… Yes, tired!” Victor laughed nervously, “Ah… Yuuri, what would you like to eat for dinner?”

“I thought we already discussed that just now and you picked me.. I mean, for me!” Yuuri said, earning him an elbow in the rib from Victor.

“Ahh but I forgot, you see. Ah… What about that Chinese place?”

“We’re in China. About everything is a Chinese place.”

“Well if you can’t decide, I’ll make the decision for you,” Yakov snapped, “I want to try that noodle place across the street from the arena.”

“Okay, let’s go!” Victor cried out, rushing behind Yakov to push him out of the locker room.

“Ew, what’s this thing all over the stall door?” Yakov thought he heard one of the younger skaters shout.

 

* * *

 

“Christophe, you have a message!”

Josef didn’t allow Christophe to keep his phone on him right after competitions since the incident years ago. Christophe had gotten into the habit of checking his social media accounts right after competitions, and proceeding to feel poorly for the rest of the week due to the onslaught of negative comments. Now, Christophe was only allowed to have his phone whenever he received a text message or call from someone both of them knew.

Christophe leaned back into the couch, stretching his arm out in anticipation for Josef to hand him his phone. He took it from him and glanced at the flashing screen. His eyes scanned through the message before crinkling in the corners.

“Oh, Vitya,” he laughed as he held out his phone for Josef to take back into custody.

 

* * *

 

Yuuri leaned in so that his lips were barely milimetres away from Victor’s earlobe to whisper, “Well?”

“I texted Chris and asked him to get Josef to call Yakov for a talk between two coaches. Yakov knows that Chris is a close friend of mine so I doubt he’d have any problems with exchanging coach… Wisdom.”

“There’s a little coach wisdom you could give me,” Yuuri purred.

“Yuuri, don’t.”

“Vitya, Katsuki, don’t you know that it’s rude to whisper in the presence of another person? Honestly, you’d think that you veteran athletes would know better,” Yakov sighed as he rubbed the space between his eyes, “Come now, the queue is moving.”

“Yes, sir,” Victor mumbled, causing Yuuri’s shoulders to shake with a soft chuckle.

The queue moved slowly, as was expected of an award-winning restaurant. Victor tried talking Yakov out of patronising that particular establishment and going somewhere less crowded to preserve Yuuri’s energy, but Yakov simply waved him away dismissively and said, “If the queue is long, it must be good. It’s not like Yuuri will be performing again tonight.”

What Yakov didn’t know is that he couldn’t have been further from the truth, but Victor wasn’t about to jump at the opportunity to correct him.

As if having had their prayers answered, the queue finally started moving in a timely fashion. Soon, it was their turn to be seated. The maître d'hôtel approached them at the counter with a smile so sincere that it almost made Victor regret his entire life when he later bore witness to Yakov’s subsequent attempt at getting a better table.

“I’m sorry, Sir. This is the only available table we have. If you don’t want it you’ll have to wait for another one to open up.”

“Do you know who this man is?” Yakov said as he nodded his head towards Yuuri, “This man just took second place at the Cup of China earlier today. Are you saying that this is the best table you have to offer him?”

“Yakov, it’s fine!” was Yuuri’s exasperated response, “It’s fine. I’m sorry but I’m really tired and I just want to eat something and go home.”

“Very well, then.”

The maître d'hôtel was still smiling, but Victor sense an unease in her that previously wasn’t there. Once she left them to decide on their order at their table close to the kitchen, he immediately sank his teeth into Yakov.

“You warned me against doing that. You said it was unprofessional and tacky!”

“It is, but I’m not the one with the celebrity status.”

“You never used it when we ate together back in Russia.”

“What can I say, Vitya? I like Katsuki better than you,” his voice was completely stoic but even Yuuri saw a teasing glint in his eyes.

Victor’s expression softened as he turned to look at Yuuri. Then a spark of inspiration hit him. He angled the heel of his foot towards Yuuri and started dragging it up Yuuri’s shin. Yuuri flinched and shifted uncomfortably in his seat until he finally fell off it.

“I’m sorry, I just… I just really needed to go to the bathroom!” Yuuri cried out.

“I’ll go with you,” Victor quickly added.

“Vitya, do you need the bathroom too?”

Victor couldn’t lie to Yakov, “... No…”

“Then sit down. You’re not in summer camp. He doesn’t need a bathroom buddy.”

Victor let out a low, pained squirm.

 

* * *

 

“Are you still keeping up with your ballet training?” Yakov asked between bites of food, “Yuri told me that you used to dance.”

“Ah, when I can. I don’t really do it during competition seasons, though.”

“That’s understandable. I wish Vitya would make more of an effort with his flexibility. He’s good enough as he is, don’t misunderstand me, but if he worked a tiny bit harder at ballet the results would be amazing.”

“Hmm, somehow I feel like he has been trying to improve his flexibility lately,” Yuuri said, shooting a sly grin at Victor.

“You have?”

“Ah…,” Victor glared back at Yuuri after almost choking on his rice wine, “Uhm yeah… Yuuri has inspired me to… Ah… I want to compete against Yuuri.”

“Is that true?” Yakov’s eyes widened, “You know you’re always welcome back under my tutelage, right?”

“I appreciate that, Yakov,” Victor said solemnly, “I just want to focus my attention on Yuuri’s career now.”

“Of course. Just know that… tsk, who’s calling me at this time?”

Yuuri and Victor froze in anticipation.

“Yes, this is Yakov. What? Okay, hold on,” Yakov pulled his phone away from his ear, “Would you mind? I need to take this.”

Yuuri quickly nodded in approval. As soon as Yakov left their table, they sighed in unison.

“It’s almost over, Yuuri,” he reached out to squeeze Yuuri’s hand, “Thank you for being so patient, my love.”

Yuuri simply smiled back at him.

“Vitya, I have a favour to ask,” Yakov said when he sat back down at the table, “Lilia just called me. Yuri didn’t get gold at Skate Canada and he’s a little upset about it. Would you mind sending him a message? I think we both know he’d like that.”

“Of course not! I’ll send it right away. Is there anything else?”

“No.”

“You didn’t get any other calls?” Yuuri breathed.

“Was I supposed to?”

Victor’s phone almost slipped through his fingers.

“If I ordered a bottle of baijiu, would both of you share it with me? I hear that it’s similar to vodka and I’d like to try some.”

 

* * *

 

A bottle of baijiu and a heated argument over who was going to pay for dinner later, Victor and Yuuri finally found themselves in front of the taxi stand near the restaurant. Their hotel wasn’t far enough that they couldn’t just walk back, but Yakov had insisted against it so that Yuuri wouldn’t be too tired before their flight early the next morning.

Finally, a taxi arrived. Victor and Yuuri must have been really tired because they quickly shuffled into the back seat. Yakov reached out to open the door to the front seat, when suddenly the taxi drove off.

“I’M SORRY, YAKOV,” Victor called out through the cracked open window.

“... UNGRATEFUL CHILD,” Yakov huffed.

Fortunately, another taxi pulled over right after, and Yakov got into it. He recited the name of the hotel to the driver and sat in contemplation about whether or not he had made the right decisions in nurturing Victor. He was a nice and fairly polite boy, but his manners needed a lot of work. Perhaps he needed to have a long talk with him. He wouldn’t want to have to pick up the pieces of Victor’s shattered heart if Yuuri ends up leaving him for being so uncouth.

When he arrived at the hotel, he realised that he had been right behind Victor and Yuuri’s taxi the entire time. They burst out of the door and scrambled up the steps to the hotel lobby. Curious to know what could have possibly led to this behaviour, Yakov quickly paid the driver, probably a lot more than he needed to, and rushed into the building without waiting to receive his change.

“I hate you,” he saw Victor seeth at Christophe who was sitting on the sofa in the lobby, seeming to have been waiting for them to return.

“Enjoy the delayed gratification, sweethearts,” Christophe cooed back at him.

Yakov squeezed his eyes shut when he saw Yuuri push Victor up against the wall of the elevator before the doors shut.

“Good evening, Yakov,” Christophe laughed as he got up to return to his room.

**Author's Note:**

> Quick shoutout to [@inkuisitivskins](https://inkuisitivskins.tumblr.com) for beta reading and letting me bounce ideas off her. Honestly, I wouldn't have finished this if it weren't for her. 
> 
> I'd love to know what you think my writing. Please leave comments! Also, please leave kudos if you liked it. I live on lattes and validation.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading! <3


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